CTIN 534

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January 13, 2005

Possible Topics for 544 Modules

Each of these is a possible topic for a three-week module

Stereoscopic Vision

Stereoscopy is both a basic and almost unnoticed feature of experience, and a spectacular media technology that can push our experience of images from a mode of exterior contemplation to a sense of total immersion. The principles of binocular vision are straightforward, but demand careful attention to the finer details of how we perceive the world. A stereoscopic image is a kind of hallucination, existing somewhere between two and three dimensions, and the effective use of stereo requires a thorough understanding of its techniques and methods. Stereoscopic imaging has typically been hyped as the ultimate in realism, but because it inevitably calls attention to itself, it often paradoxically foregrounds the artificiality of images. Ultimately, stereoscopy makes possible the direct experience of various non-realistic and even non-euclidean spaces. In this module, we will cover the basic principles of binocular vision as well as the various available methods for creating and displaying stereoscopic images.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality encompasses a set of techniques and apparatuses for making media experiences that exist not as screens or images but as immersive evironments and even entire worlds. In this module, we will examine the various components that can produce virtual experiences, including viewpoint-dependent imaging, wide field-of-view optics, visual and aural immersion, haptics, etc. We’ll look at the various available apparatuses for VR, including head-mounted and head-coupled displays, CAVEs and related projection systems, and other emerging alternatives. There will be a special focus on haptics and the Phantom Omni, a force-feedback stylus now installed in the electronics lab.

Installation Art

Installation art has a long pre-history, leading up to its wide use as a descriptive term in the art of the 1970s and 80s. It has since then become one of the dominant modes of art production, encompassing everything from painting and sculpture to computer-based and interactive art. Although it most often refers to room-sized artworks, and is bound up with the idea of site specificity, installation can be understood as a fundamental cultural medium. Unlike most screen-based approaches to media production, which concede any consideration of the exact details of presentation to the end user, installation foregrounds precisely those issues of specific experience. For instance, in digital media, the entire physical apparatus is often treated as though it were invisible, with our only focus on image and sound. Installation provides a largely different frame of reference, in which the ‘invisible’ supports of media can be rearranged and re-presented as objects of attention and inquiry. Further, the specific history of installation art can suggest alternative and less rigid approaches to interactivity. In this module, we will examine the history of installation art and investigate how this approach to media production can broaden our own practice.

Obsolete Technology

The constant pressure in the area of media technology to keep up with the so-called state of the art can be not only unnerving, it can in fact obscure any comprehensive understanding of media culture. We have a tendency to understand the evolution of technology as a progressive, linear process in which each development builds on and supercedes previous technologies, which are rendered obsolete and useless by their descendants. It can be productive, however, to instead view each technology as a set of potentialities, only some of which are actually realized during the lifespan of that technology’s use, and which remain after its obsolescence. Further, it is only through an archaelogical approach that we can see larger patterns in which successive technologies make promises (which they then often break) to fulfil the same kinds of desires, over and over. Each era’s idea of low tech was in fact a previous generation’s high tech. In this module, we will be looking at methods and practices to excavate and recessitate obsolete technologies for use in our projects.

Eccentric Projection

We typically think of image projection as a simple and straightforward procedure whereby a projector is aimed directly at a colorless flat screen surface. In fact, projection is a complex process involving a specific apparatus and a whole array of operations, any of which can be altered and manipulated to produce surprising and spectacular effects. From its earliest manifestations in shadowplay, the invention of the magic lantern and the phantasmagorias of the 19th century, through the development of cinema and the experimental techniques of artists and inventors, right up to the current generation of high-resolution data projectors, there is a rich history of alternative approaches to projection that can be mined for new ideas and techniques. In this module, we will be investigating projection as a variant of augmented reality -- a method for fusing images and objects into complex systems. We will examine and experiment with each component of the projection process -- light source, image, lens system, transmission, screen or other support -- to develop an understanding of how to use projection to create new kinds of media objects and experiences.

Intermediate Physical Computing

In this module, we’ll pick up where we left off last semester, going into more detail on various available sensors, actuators and microcontrollers. Likely topics include stepper and servo motors, rotary encoders, etc.

Introduction to Audio & MIDI

Using Max/MSP, we’ll cover the basics of MIDI input and output, as well as creating, acquiring, processing, manipulating and mixing audio waveforms.

Posted by Perry at January 13, 2005 02:51 PM

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